Yvan Muller has taken pole position in qualifying for the World Touring Car Championship in Hungary, beating Chevrolet team-mates Rob Huff and Alain Menu to the top of the times.
Click here for the full Round 9/10 Qualifying results.
Top Yokohama Independent on the grid for the first race is Proteam Racing’s Mehdi Bennani while local hero Norbert Michelisz starts sixth in the Zengo Motorsport BMW 320TC.
Muller was the first driver to take to the track when the track went live but after one lap, the French driver was back in the pits, and the early running saw the ROAL Motorsport BMW of Alberto Cerqui setting the pace.
It didn’t take long for the works Chevrolet drivers to assert themselves at the head of the field as Slovakian race winner Huff moved to the top of the times. Menu then bettered Huff’s time with a 1m55.415s to top the times.
On his first appearance of the season, James Thompson in the LADA was inside the top ten when he stopped at the half way point of the session. Thompson wound up sixteenth fastest.
As the opening twenty minutes started to draw to its conclusion, Muller was on a charge and soon jumped to the top of the time sheets with his former SEAT team-mate Gabriele Tarquini second fastest.
With three minutes remaining, Tarquini, Michelisz and Darryl O’Young were all in the pits while the Chevrolets were going for a final attempt. Huff moved to the top of the times before Muller came back and bettered his British team-mates best effort.
At the flag, the top twelve drivers were Muller, Huff, Tarquini, Menu, Tiago Monteiro, Michelisz, O’Young, Franz Engstler, Pepe Oriola, Bennani, Alex MacDowall and James Nash.
The biggest names to miss out on Q2 were Alexey Dudukalo and Tom Coronel. The Lukoil Racing team driver finished the session eighteenth fastest while Coronel will start nineteenth.
At the start of the second part of qualifying, ten out of the twelve cars took to the track as soon as the session started, with Menu and Nash holding off until later in the session.
On his first flying lap, Muller set the pace and his qualifying time, 1m54.503s wasn’t bettered, and Huff ended up two tenths slower than the reigning Champion and team-mate.
Menu left himself work to do as he completed a single attempt to qualify inside the top ten, and he finished the session third fastest with Slovakian race one winner Tarquini fourth fastest.
The best of the BMW’s will line up fifth as Bennani beat local hero Michelisz while seventh is the SunRed powered SEAT Leon of Monteiro. The top ten is completed by O’Young, Oriola and Engstler, the Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320TC driver securing Pole Position for the reverse grid race.
Alex MacDowall in the bamboo engineering car and Nash in the Team Aon Ford Focus complete the top twelve, MacDowall was on for the race two Pole Position until Menu moved into the top three.
Muller has further extended his Championship advantage over Huff and Menu ahead of the races tomorrow, the Frenchman’s advantage stands at 28 points.
Rounds nine and ten will both be shown live on Eurosport tomorrow at 10am GMT and 1.15pm GMT.